1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a security and identification method and system for use in screening and/or identifying individuals passing through secure entry or checkpoints at airport passenger terminals, government offices, office buildings, military facilities, laboratories, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Passenger and carry-on luggage screening technology was first instituted in 1973 and is still in use today and was originally intended to uncover hijack weapons. Recent national and international events have underscored the need for effective identification and screening of individuals entering or passing through secure checkpoints. Today, the procedure of screening passengers at common carrier terminals, such as, for example, airports, trains stations, bus terminals and the like, must be an important task to protect safety of passengers. Manual identification of the passengers at the checkpoint is a slow and cumbersome process, and because it is not precise, manual identification may allow unwanted or undesirable individuals to avoid detection through disguises.
The art is replete with various systems of facial recognition and identification methods. The U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,238, for example, teaches a primitive method for identifying individuals using selected characteristic body curves; U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,000, teaches an image recognition system designed for use in recognizing predetermined individuals out of a viewing audience; the U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,094 on the other hand teaches a method for identifying individuals by the analysis of elemental shapes derived from biosensor data, generating a thermal image of the individual's face that is converted to a digital representation.
With advent of a modern technology other methods have been developed. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,807, teaches an apparatus for processing a facial image and creating an output of extracted data of feature points that may be used for comparison or other purposes; the U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,517, describes a continuous video monitoring system for regulating access to a restricted environment such as a computer system; and the U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,575, teaches a real-time facial recognition and verification system for comparison to a stored image. Other attempts have been made to improve the security identification system.
The United States Publication No. 20030142853, for example, teaches a security and identification system designed to obtain improved images for use by real-time facial recognition and identification systems for screening individuals passing through secure entry or checkpoints such as airport passenger terminals, government offices, and other secure locations. The system detects the presence of a person at the checkpoint, interactively instructs the person to stop and move into position for proper identification and recognition, analyzes the facial features of the subject as the person through the checkpoint, and compares the features of the subject with those in a database. The system then generates different signals depending upon whether or not the person is recognized.
Each of the aforementioned United States patent references describes either a method or apparatus for performing facial recognition or identification. However, all of these patents suffer from the drawback that unless the facial image is properly positioned and lighted for a sufficient length of time, the recognition or identification may be incomplete, inaccurate or may not take place at all. Furthermore, these references do not provide a way to account for a passenger's whereabouts after the passenger has gone through the security checkpoint up to and when the passenger boards the transportation vehicle.